US Stocks Mixed; Banks, Energies Rise; Tech Falls

(AP) -- Stocks were mixed in early trading on Wall Street Monday as technology stocks fell and offset gains for banks and energy companies.

The S&P 500 index fell 0.2% as of 10:09 a.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 214 points, or 0.6%, to 35,012 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 0.8%.

The benchmark S&P 500 had more gainers than losers. Banks made solid gains as bond yields continued climbing, which allows them to charge higher interest rates on loans. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 1.47% from 1.46% late Friday. Bank of America gained 2.8%.

Oil prices rose 2.2% and supported gains for energy stocks. Exxon Mobil rose 2.3%.

The technology sector, which carries an outsized weight within the S&P 500, slumped 1.1% overall. Apple fell 1.4% and Microsoft fell 1.5%.

A measure of small-company stocks did better than the major indexes in a sign that investors were still confident about future economic growth. The Russell 2000 index rose 1%.

Markets have had a choppy month so far and the S&P 500 is on pace to shed 1.5% in September, which would mark the first monthly loss since January. Investors have been trying to gauge just how much room the economy has to grow amid waves of COVID-19 crimping consumer spending and job growth while inflation remains a concern.

The economic recovery started strong in 2021, but analysts and economists have been tempering their forecasts for the rest of the year. In a survey being released Monday, the National Association for Business Economics found that its panel now expects full-year economic growth of 5.6%, down from a forecast for 6.7% growth in NABE's previous survey in May. However, economists raised their forecast for 2022 economic growth to 3.5% from a previous outlook of 2.8%.

Markets in Europe edged higher while Asian markets were mixed.